Film editor goes beyond the call

of duty for Ms.Conceptions

There is something more than slightly organic about the filmmaking process for Ric Bienstock (Deadly Currents).

Ms.Conceptions, a 16mm documentary on the fertility industry for single would-be mothers (directed and coproduced by Bienstock), came about through a conversation she had with the film’s coproducer, Linda Frum. At the time, the two single women discussed options of how to bear children sans husband/partner. Frum is now married, with twins, and Bienstock is engaged, but hasn’t had time to go to the altar what with finishing the doc.

Now, with the $440,000 Ms.Conceptions ready for its cbc broadcast on Jan. 24, Bienstock not only will be hearing wedding bells in the near future, she’s planning a new, untitled documentary – on the wedding industry.

Weddings and fertility are serious business, says Bienstock, but it’s the humorous aspects she is most interested in. Of Ms.Conceptions, she says, ‘It’s a serious film, but there is also a lot of humor in it that is inherent in the sperm industry.’

Shooting a Montreal fertility convention, ‘where sperm banks were plying their wares like any salesman would,’ was one of the funnier moments, says Bienstock. But it pales in comparison to the tale of how her co-editor, Steve Weslak, came to rescue the film in a most unusual and heroic way.

There is stock footage a-plenty of sperm on tape, says Bienstock, but not on film. In Toronto, she found Eli Kassner, a self-proclaimed cinemicrographer, to handle shooting the baby-makers under microscope in 16mm. Problem was, Bienstock forgot to cast the stars of the scene. The lights were ready, crew waiting, and Bienstock panicked. She called Weslak and asked him to please provide his services.

Dedicated participant that he is, he obliged Bienstock and will be handsomely rewarded with an appropriate credit, ‘Sperm Wrangler.’

February start for Paramount

Paramount Pictures’ new feature, A Whisper in the Attic, will shoot in Toronto and on Muskoka Lake for 11 weeks beginning late February.

Mark Johnson (Rain Man, A Perfect World) is producing with Tina Nides and Kevin McCormick. Expatriate Bill Bannerman, who has worked on every Clint Eastwood picture since Unforgiven (where he was 2nd ad), is line producer. Bannerman grew up in Nova Scotia, went to York University’s film school and moved south of the border after working up here on such projects as The Gate and Millenium.

Robert Harmon (The Hitcher) is at the helm of the thriller set in a New England town. The story revolves around a couple who leave the big city in order to find solace in rural life and instead get caught in a situation fraught with danger.

The leads will be American studio fare and Ross Clydesdale is casting in Canada for smaller roles. Johnson says 90% of the crew will be Canadian.

Look who’s

back in town

Don Carmody, most recently producer of Squanto: Indian Warrior and Johnny Mnemonic, is back in Canada to produce Before I Wake, an mgm feature. He feels like he never left. ‘Ever since I came here, it seems I can’t get out of Toronto,’ he says.

Before I Wake, a $20 million-plus production, will start rolling March 19 in Toronto and will continue for 12 weeks.

George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) scripted and will direct the horror flick, described by Carmody as ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle meets Poltergeist.’

Plans are to build the set – which is primarily a contemporary family home – on the Cinespace lot. Coproducer is Peter Grunwald, production designer is Vancouverite John Willitt and art director is Willy Heslup, also from the West Coast. Crewing is underway now, as is casting in the u.s. and here, with Stuart Aikins handling the Canadian end of the talent search.

Rumors have been circulating ever since Johnny that Carmody and Alliance Communications have something in the works. Carmody says possibly in the tv department, since he is looking to start up his dormant tv production company, Carmody Productions, in the near future.

A Demanding project

John Greyson (Zero Patience) and Steve Lucas (Diplomatic Immunity) are teaming up this winter to write Demanding, a one-hour tv doc about aids activism for tvontario’s doc strand, The View From Here. Greyson will direct, Pam Davenport will produce and Eric Jordan will executive produce. Plans are to start shooting in early March for delivery in September, pending completion funding from Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation.

Not amused

‘Canada eats its young and talented in comedy. It’s shameful,’ says television writer and director Brad Birch. He’s not kidding. Birch and his company, Laughing Matters, are behind Remotely, a half-hour pilot made for the cbc in partnership with Atlantis Communications.

What’s so bad about that? Birch says trouble started when Ivan Fecan stepped out of the Mother Corp and Phyllis Platt stepped in. His show ‘got caught in a political crossfire,’ he says.

In the end, Remotely was slotted for a Wrestling Day (i